Exercise

What to do

Choose the right kinds of activities — those that build the muscles around your joints but don't damage the joints themselves. A physical or occupational therapist can help you develop an exercise program that's right for you.

Include low-impact aerobic exercise, such as walking, cycling or water exercises, to improve your mood and help control your weight.

What to avoid

Avoid activities that involve high impact and repetitive motion, such as:

Running

Jumping

Tennis

High-impact aerobics

Repeating the same movement, such as a tennis serve, again and again

Medications

Many different types of medications are available for arthritis pain relief. Most are relatively safe, but no medication is completely free of side effects. Talk with your doctor to formulate a medication plan for your specific pain symptoms.

What to do

Take medications. Over-the-counter pain medications, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) or ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others), can help relieve occasional pain triggered by activity your muscles and joints aren't used to — such as gardening after a winter indoors.

Topical analgesics. Cream containing capsaicin may be applied to skin over a painful joint to relieve pain. Use alone or with oral medication.

What to avoid

Undertreatment. Don't try to ignore severe and prolonged arthritis pain. It may mean you have joint inflammation or damage requiring daily medication.

Focusing only on pain. Depression is more common in people with arthritis. Doctors have found that treating depression with antidepressants and other therapies reduces not only depression symptoms but also arthritis pain.

Physical and emotional integration

It's no surprise that arthritis pain has a negative effect on your mood. If everyday activities make you hurt, you're bound to feel discouraged. But when these normal feelings escalate to create a constant refrain of fearful, hopeless thoughts, your pain can actually get worse and harder to manage.

Relaxation therapy. Find ways to relax. Meditating, doing yoga, deep breathing, listening to music, being in nature, writing in a journal — whatever works for you. There's no downside to relaxation, and it can help ease pain.

Acupuncture. Some people experience pain relief through acupuncture treatments, when a trained acupuncturist inserts hair-thin needles at specific points on your body.

Heat and cold. Use of heat, such as applying heating pads to aching joints, taking hot baths or showers, or immersing painful joints in warm paraffin wax, can help relieve pain temporarily. Be careful not to burn yourself. Use heating pads for no more than 20 minutes at a time.

Use of cold, such as applying ice packs to sore muscles, can relieve pain and inflammation after strenuous exercise.

Massage. Massage may improve pain and stiffness. Make sure your massage therapist knows you have arthritis and where.

What to avoid

Smoking. If you're addicted to tobacco, you may use it as an emotional coping tool. But it's counterproductive: Toxins in smoke cause stress on connective tissue, leading to more joint problems.

A negative attitude. Negative thoughts are self-perpetuating. As long as you keep dwelling on them, they keep escalating until you believe the worst. Using negative thoughts to cope with pain can actually increase your risk of disability and pain. Instead, focus on adaptive therapies like distraction or calming statements.

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